Phoebe Bridgers Announces New Album Lost Weekend
50 minutes ago
Sunday, 30 January 2011
parissummer madison
Reply from friend on Hyves "I'm not pro-hanging, but isn't drug-smuggling wrong?" in regard to-> http://bbc.in/fLlt2j #fuckinghell #clueless
Zahra Bahrami RIP
Iranian Ambassador Gharib Abadi was informed of the sanctions after he confirmed reports that Zahra Bahrami, 45, was executed. She had participated in protests against Iran's disputed presidential election in 2009.
Foreign Minister Uri Rosenthal was "shocked, shattered by this act by a barbaric regime," said spokesman Bengt van Loosdrecht, especially since Abadi had assured the Dutch minister on Friday that Bahrami's legal avenues had not yet been exhausted.
Iran Hangs Dutch Woman Arrested after Protests
Reuters | Jan 29
An Iranian-Dutch woman, arrested after taking part in anti-government protests in Iran in 2009, has been hanged for drug smuggling, the semi-official Mehr news agency said on Saturday.
"A woman smuggler named Zahra Bahrami, daughter of Ali, has been hanged today for the possession and selling of narcotics," Mehr reported, quoting the court.
The 45-year-old woman's daughter was quoted by the rights group International Campaign for Human Rights in Iran as saying the drug charges were fabricated after Bahrami was arrested for taking part in protests in December 2009.
Iran Hangs Iranian-Dutch Woman for Drug Smuggling
AFP (via Vancouver Sun) | Jan 28
The prosecutor's office confirmed on Saturday that she had been arrested for "security crimes."
But elaborating on her alleged drug smuggling, the office said Bahrami had used her Dutch connections to smuggle narcotics into Iran.
"The convict, a member of an international drug gang, smuggled cocaine to Iran using her Dutch connections and had twice shipped and distributed cocaine inside the country," it said.
During a search of her house, authorities found 450 grams of cocaine and 420 grams of opium, the office said, adding that investigations revealed she had sold 150 grams of cocaine in Iran.
Lawyer in Shock over Dutch-Iranian Client's Execution: 'Her Investigation Was Not Yet Complete'
ICHRI | Jan 29
The International Campaign for Human Rights in Iran was able to contact Bahrami's lawyer, Jinoos Sharif Razi in Tehran. [She] was not aware of the execution. "I am shocked. I was absolutely not informed about this. They should have informed her lawyer of the execution, but I had no idea. I don't know what to say. Just that I am shocked," she said.
An informed source told the International Campaign for Human Rights in Iran that during Zahra Bahrami's detention, her interrogation team was the Iranian Intelligence Ministry's Anti-Espionage Team. Therefore the possibility that her initial charges were drug-related is nil. According to the said source, during her first few weeks of detention in prison, Zahra Bahrami was physically and psychologically tortured to provide televised confessions according to a pre-written scenario.
Jinoos Sharif told the Campaign that the Iranian Judiciary has not yet reviewed the security charges waged against her client. "I am bewildered as to how my client's death sentence was issued while her security charges had not yet been reviewed."
"My mother always says that the confessions extracted from her and her participation in a television interview were all done under duress, and that she was forced to do it, as they had promised to help her. Unfortunately, she was not helped at all," Zahra Bahrami's daughter told the Campaign last week. Asked whether her mother transported drugs during her visits to Iran, her daughter said: "As her daughter, I do not accept any of these accusations. My mother said in court that because she was under pressure during the interrogations, she was made to say those things. My mother is not interested in such things at all. She doesn't even smoke cigarettes, let alone possessing drugs. How could someone who participates in [post-] election gatherings and endangers her life, engage in such actions against her country?"
See also: Report of execution in Farsi (Human Rights Activists News Agency) | "Daughter of Ashura Death Row Prisoner: Mom's False Confessions Based on Promise of Release" (Rah-e Sabz [Jaras] via Persian2English) | "Zahra Bahrami's Upcoming Trial and Possible Death Sentence" (Human Rights and Democracy Activists in Iran via Persian2English)
@'Tehran Bureau'
(GB2011)
billybragg Billy Bragg
Important lesson from the London demo today: no kettle = no violence. Coalition, Mayor & Met Police please take note #solidarity
The best view of Heaven is from Hell
@'Dazed Digital'
wikileaks WikiLeaks
Yes, we may have helped Tunisia, Egypt. But let us not forget the elephant in the room: Al Jazeera + sat dishes
Gang Of Four - Content (Albumstream)
1. She Said 'You Made A Thing Of Me'
2. You Don't Have To Be Mad
3. Who Am I?
4. I Can't Forget Your Lonely Face
5. You'll Never Pay For The Farm
6. I Party All The Time
7. A Fruitfly In The Beehive
8. It Was Never Gonna Turn Out Too Good
9. Do As I Say
10. I Can See From Far Away
ALBUMSTREAM
BBC review
HA! (Thanx Helen!)
.@WilliamJHague "UK calls for right 2 protest 2B respected & govt to show commitment to genuine reform"- hope that'll apply in UK too #egypt
Saturday, 29 January 2011
HA!
GregMitch Greg Mitchell
Wash Post, which has mocked WikiLeaks for past year, now jumping in on Egypt cables in big way, even crowd sourcing. http://bit.ly/g5mslO
Evgeny Morozov: The dark side of Internet for Egyptian and Tunisian protesters
evgenymorozov Evgeny Morozov
The Anonymous plan to fax WL cables to Egypt to let protesters know that "police cannot be trusted" sounds, well, odd http://goo.gl/tsJd9
Web campaigns disengage youth from protests
jeremyscahill jeremy scahill
Apparently I pissed off some Kuwaitis. Yeah, I said it, your government is a corrupt puppet for the US
Egypt: Too soon to analyze, so here’s my outbox
Like many people, I’ve spent the day glued to Al Jazeera English’s coverage of the protests that have taken place all across Egypt. Egyptian friends had made it clear to me that today would be pivotal – the day the revolution took place, or failed to catch fire. I’m stunned by the bravery of the people who took to the streets, knowing they’d face police willing to use tear gas and rubber bullets to drive them back. I’m fascinated at how effectively protesters mobilized with communications (not just internet, but mobile phone and SMS) cut. And I’m deeply moved by the photos that show protesters praying in the middle of demonstrations, sometimes with police joining them, sometimes, as above, with water cannons trying to disperse them while they pray.
And like everyone else, I’m waiting to hear Mubarak speak… or to hear the news that he’s disappeared and that the military has taken charge of the country. It’s too early for analysis, of how the protests managed to be so massive, of the role (or lack of role) of social media, of implications for the broader region. Or maybe it’s the right time for more nimble pundits than me. All I can do is share my outbox with you – here’s some email I’ve sent to friends and colleagues answering questions that have come in today:
In response to a reporter’s question about the importance of Internet to the movements in Egypt and Tunisia, and whether internet access is a human right:
Both Tunisia and Egypt have experienced broad-based popular revolutions. The people who’ve taken to the streets aren’t just the elites using social media – they’re a broad swath of society, heavy on young people, but including a wide range of ages, incomes and political ideologies. It’s a mistake to link the protests too tightly to factors like Facebook, Twitter, Wikileaks – at the root, these protests are about economics, demographics and decades of autocratic rule.
But because they’re popular movements, it’s very much worth asking how they’ve been organized, and what’s convinced people to take to the streets. In both Tunisia and Egypt, it’s pretty clear that these protests have not been organized by existing political parties. (The Brotherhood in Egypt helped turn people out for the protests today in Egypt, but they are not the core organizers, and have been very careful not to claim leadership.) What motivates tens of thousands of people to take to the streets, knowing that they’re going to face severe reactions from security forces.
Media plays a role here. In Tunisia, protests started with the immolation of Mohamed Bouazizi, and initially were confined to Sidi Bouzid, a small and relatively disconnected city. The protests got attention across the country and throughout the Arab world via Al Jazeera, which aggressively covered the protests, despite the fact that the network’s reporters had been banned from the country. Al J leaned heavily on social media, reproducing images and video from Facebook, which is widely used (19%+ percent of Tunisian population uses Facebook) in the country. Al Jazeera is widely watched in Tunisia, and images of people taking to the streets in Sidi Bouzid helped spark the protests that spread throughout the country and eventually to Tunis, where they toppled the government. I don’t think social media was the prime actor, but social media amplified by broadcast helped tell Tunisians that their fellow citizens were taking
to the streets...
Continue reading
Ethan Zuckerman @'my heart's in accra'
jeremyscahill jeremy scahill
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